You have a sizable online audience following – why not make a profit from it? Many brands are missing out on a valuable revenue stream available simply through the daily site traffic going to their website. While the topic of driving traffic away from your site or conversions has to be carefully considered, the payout for creating advertising on site can be tremendous. Not only can publishers earn tens of thousands each year (or yes, millions – if you have that kind of audience), but they can create a better environment for their audience by delivering relevant advertisers and creatives based on audience interests. Advertising opportunities are endless and a well-integrated program can include the following: in-stream video, banner ads, text ads, rich media, email, takeovers, sponsorships, custom advertorials and mobile units.

Publishers are now going the extra mile by creating ‘native’ forms of advertising where content can be fully sponsored and integrated into the content of the website. Companies like Spotify have created branded playlists while others like Tumblr are selling brands the opportunity to promote their posts.

On another side of innovation, Google has developed Content Search Advertising (CSA) that can be enabled on high volume search enabled publisher sites and is an especially good fit for retail clients. Leading brands such as Target were willing to override the risk of losing customer sales to the sheer gain in revenue from this new inventory source. Check it out – go to Target.com and do a search for iPod. The CSA ads serve relevant offers in text format in the lower left corner of the page based on your search criteria.